Shoot Out Scores Queensland Horse of the Year 2011

The John Wallace-trained Gold Coast galloper Shoot Out was on the weekend awarded with the 2010/11 Queensland Horse of the Year award, the multiple elite level champion taking out the honours for the second year in a row.

High Chaparral gelding Shoot Out, now five-years-old, beat the likes of Epsom Handicap winner Captain Sonador and Robert Heathcote’s well-performing Brisbane Winter Carnival contender Buffering to be crowned the Queensland Horse of the Year for last season.

Shoot Out, winner of the 2010 Randwick Guineas and AJC Australian Derby, was credited for an ace season that included a win in the Group 2 JJ Liston Stakes (1400m) as well as third place finishes in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes and Group 2 Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes in Melbourne last spring.

The gallant galloper went on to finish only a quarter-length away third behind Zipping and Shocking in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes last October before their game fourth to dual hero So You Think in Australasia’s championship weight-for-age Cox Plate.

Other winners at the 2011 RQ’s Thoroughbred Awards Night on Saturday September 3 included:

Robert Heathcote – Queensland Trainer of the Year & Metropolitan Premiership Trainer of the Year

Chris Munce – Queensland Jockey of the Year & Metropolitan Premiership Jockey of the Year

In other major Queensland racing news, three-time Sydney premiership-winning trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith was on Saturday night inducted into the Queensland Racing Hall of Fame.

Mayfield-Smith has enjoyed enormous success since kicking off his career in the racing industry as a Brisbane-based strapper in 1967.

In the training game since 1971 when working out of Cairns, Mayfield-Smith’s debut winner was in April of that year with Gay Meld.

He relocated to Brisbane in 1974 before making an assault on the Sydney racing game two years later.

Famous for being the man to end Tommy Smith’s 33-year reign over the Sydney Training Premiership when he claimed his first of three for the 1985-86 season.

Two more Premierships would follow for Mayfield-Smith in Sydney in 1986-87 and 1978-88.

While Shoot Out has been ruled out of racing for the remainder of the year after suffering a back injury, there are still plenty of talented horses ready to make their Melbourne Spring Carnival crusades.

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